Mosquito season has arrived in Athens. That’s according to Elmer Gray, a Public Health Specialist with the University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension Service. Gray says in spite of a dry spell for much of the state, this year’s pest population is expected to be fairly typical.
“It’s definitely mosquito season now, we’ve had a wet year, we moved into a pretty normal winter and then it dried off pretty quick with some heavy rains at times,” according to Gray. “It was kind of an erratic start, but now it’s been hot. We had a hot spell over Memorial Day weekend and mosquito populations really seem to be picking up. There’s been mosquito larvae in all the habitats that I’ve seen recently.”
He says the rainfall over the next few days will provide prime mosquito breeding grounds.
“Absolutely, we’re in it now, certainly as this rain comes this weekend. They’re calling for pretty heavy rains that will fill up all the containers around every yard. Everything has probably got some mosquito eggs in it so those eggs are going to hatch when they get filled and flooded over.
The season, he says, is just getting started.
“Then the season goes to the middle of September, as the nights start cooling off and the days get shorter, then the populations wind down pretty quick.”
Gray says we can expect to see fully grown, biting, blood-sucking mosquitoes in as little as two weeks after rain.
“So it rains this weekend, the eggs are flooded, they may hatch around Tuesday or Wednesday; six, seven, eight days maybe at these temperatures. [In]Two weeks, you’re going to have adult mosquitoes from this rain.”
Gray urges everyone to eliminate standing water around their homes and yards.”
